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NEWS & PERSPECTIVES...8

An Unforced Performer

Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement Here’s Why 90% of Hong Kong Students Aren’t Ending the Umbrella Movement Soon

this is singapore...4

An Interview With the Awardwinning Violinist Gabriel Ng

BEYOND SCIENCE...18 BUSINESS & PROPERTY...12

Career Corner Food & Travel...32

Food Review

“12 Cupcakes”

How to Earn a Promotion

Scientists and Evolution Prominent Chemist Says Scientists Don’t Really Understand Evolution

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It is the highest form of self-respect to admit mistakes and to make amends for them.

John J. McCloy (1895–1989), American lawyer and presidential adviser A FREE CHINA

182,378,946 people have renounced the Chinese Communist Party.

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Miss Singapore Vanessa Sim (C) waves in front of other participants of the Miss International beauty pageant 2014. The beauty pageant 2014, which representatives from more than 65 countries and regions take part in, will be held on November 11 in Tokyo.

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NEWS & PERSPECTIVES

www.TheEpochTimes.com all Photos Courtesy of Gabriel Ng

this is singapore

An Unforced Performer : Gabriel Ng

By Li Yen Epoch Times Staff Gabriel Ng is a remarkable local violinist you have to look out for.

“Here is surely one of the great violinists of the early 21st century,” writes Robert Markow in United States’ Fanfare Magazine, who describes Ng’s playing as an “unforced performance, listening to which seems like drinking directly from a pure stream”.

Gabriel Ng started his exciting violin journey at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts under the tutelage of Yah Wan Har. At 10, he was enrolled into the Yehudi Menuhin School in the UK, and later studied at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

At seven, Gabriel made his debut overseas performance at the Asian Cultural Festival in Tokyo. He has performed in Rome, Jakarta, Germany and Switzerland, and played concertos with numerous established orchestras which include the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Youth Orchestras of Belarus and Salamanca, and Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

Belying his youth, the 19-year-old has won numerous accolades, from the First Prize in the Junior Category of the biennial Singapore National Piano and Violin Competition in 2003, the Grand Prize at the XIV Andrea Postacchini International Violin Competition 2007 in ltaly to the Bach Prize at the Menuhin International Violin Competition 2012 in Beijing.

A recipient of the 2006 HSBC Youth Excellence Award for Musical Excellence, Gabriel is also a Manchester United fan who loves listening to diverse musical genres, ranging from West African Pop to hip-hop.

The “warm and welcoming” local violinist is enlisting for National Service this month. Thereafter, he will be studying for his music degree in the UK. When did your love for music start, and when did you realise you want to be a violinist?

I guess I have always had a connection with music ever since I started the violin when I was four. That was the time in 1998 when the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) in Singapore had just started a violin course for kids and my parents signed me up. I started thinking about music as a career path when I entered the Menuhin School in the UK, a specialist music school.

In your opinion, why do you think music is important for mankind?

Music is innate in all humans. It has since the dawn of civilisation always been part of human living and social interaction. I think it always has a positive influence on the emotions of people, providing a means of emotional expression that is universal.

You studied violin in the Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey, United Kingdom. Tell us more about it.

My school curriculum in the Menuhin School was divided into half music and the other half academic work. The school was constantly filled with the sounds of students practising, and students making music together. It was the atmosphere and being together with children with similar musical passions that influenced my decision to become a

musician. My teacher there, Natasha Boyarsky, instilled in me the desire to work hard and improve as much as I can and introduced me to the professional world of musicians in the UK. How would you describe your approach to playing and rendering music?

I would describe my approach as using a lot of my intuitive sense. However, recently I have been recording my playing and realising that sometimes my intuitive sense while playing is somewhat different from what I like it to be when listening to it!

What are some of your preferred music pieces, and why?

I do not have a preference for music from a particular period.

But I do like music that is rarely played as I find it refreshing and in a way more challenging than the standard repertoire because it can be more demanding to interpret.

Award-winning violinist Gabriel Ng

How does it feel winning the Singapore National Piano and Violin Competition, the HSBC Youth Excellence Award and the Bach prize in the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists in Beijing?

The competitions gave me an extra incentive to work towards a goal, and increased my practice time. After all the hard work and preparation, the prizes were just the bonus and even if I did not win the competitions, I would have gained much from participating, meeting and hearing other fellow musicians perform. The HSBC Youth Excellence Award funded my studies and provided me with really good performing opportunities.

Are there any musicians, especially violinists, whom you admire and why?

I admire violinists such as Leonidas Kavakos, Alina Ibragimova, Pekka Kuusisto and Maxim Vengerov, all of whom I had the chance of seeing them perform live in concerts in London. I think they are all very different with different strengths and styles.

You have played in Japan at the age of seven, and have performed in Rome, Germany and Jakarta. Does travelling change your perspective in music and life?

Yes, definitely. My current teacher, David Takeno, always stresses the importance of visiting and exploring as many countries and cultures as possible as many of the music that I play come from all over the world. Visiting these places can give me an insight into how the pieces should feel like. Having performed in these countries makes me feel that whilst music is universal in appeal, people react differently to it.

What are the differences between Europe’s and Singapore’s music scene?

The classical music scene in Europe has [history and traditions], so it is a great place to study. However, Singapore has an exciting growing classical music scene. The Yong Siew Toh Conservatory and the [youth] orchestra Orchestra of the Music Makers are just a couple of indicators of the growing interest in classical music in Singapore and the region. For now, I am happy participating in as many concerts in Singapore as possible.

Gabriel Ng’s autograph to Epoch Times

Is cultivating an appreciation for classical music important? How can we cultivate an appreciation for classical music among Singaporeans?

Today we are bombarded by various types of music in public spaces such as shopping malls, supermarkets and in advertisements so much so that our musical senses can be dulled. I think it is important occasionally for people to have the opportunity to sit down in a quiet place and focus on a particular piece of music. Classical concerts provide such an opportunity. Many kids in Singapore learn an instrument, which is a good sign for classical music. The Music Elective Programme in schools also gives an introduction to music appreciation.

For more information about Gabriel Ng, visit http://www. gabrielng.sg

THIS IS SINGAPORE This Is Singapore is a fortnightly feature that delves into the life of an inspiring and talented individual in Singapore. Read all our interviews here: http://bit.do/thisissingapore

NEWS & PERSPECTIVES

Epoch Times

november 7 – 20, 2014

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Courtesy of Madame Tussauds Singapore

Courtesy of Madame Tussauds Singapore

Actress Audrey Hepburn

A Date With the Stars at Madame Tussauds Singapore Take a ‘selfie’ with A-list celebrities in Madame Tussauds Singapore, which opened at 40 Imbiah Rd, Sentosa on 25 October 2014. From London in 1835 to Singapore in 2014, Madame Tussauds continues to attract millions of visitors around the world.

Wax figures of local personalities featured in this exciting attraction include ‘Queen of Caldecott Hill’ Zoe Tay, the hilarious ‘Phua Chu Kang’ protrayed by actor-host Gurmit Singh, singer Stefanie Sun, actor Huang Wenyong, footballer Fandi Ahmad and director Jack Neo. Have a date with more than 60 iconic stars around the world and prepare to pose alongside Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp, David Beckham, Nicole Kidman, Audrey Hepburn, Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio, Teresa Teng, Bruce Lee, Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Lady Gaga, Beyonce Knowles, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Taylor Swift and even ET! So who do you want to meet?

Actress Zoe Tay

Fred fan/epoch times

Courtesy of Madame Tussauds Singapore

Fred fan/epoch times

Singer Stefanie Sun

Courtesy of Madame Tussauds Singapore

Actor-host Gurmit Singh

Actress Angelina Jolie

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November 7 – 20, 2014

NEWS & PERSPECTIVES

Epoch Times

6,000 Security for G20, Community Groups Shar Adams/Epoch Times

By Shar Adams Epoch Times Staff BRISBANE—As security tightens and thousands of police descend on Brisbane for the upcoming G20 Leaders’ Summit, organisers of a parallel People’s Summit have accused authorities of fear mongering and restrictions on freedom of expression.

Queensland Police have already banned two people for fear of violence and have suggested more people may be banned as the event draws closer.

Robin Taubenfeld, spokesperson for the Brisbane Community Action Network (BrisCANG20), says authorities and local media are unnecessarily perpetuating the notion of violent protest in the lead up to the G20 summit.

“A response to the G20 isn’t necessarily a protest action,” she said.

The organisers of the People’s Summit (BrisCAN-G20) is a network of groups concerned about environmental and social issues surrounding the G20. Activities planned during their three-day symposium on Nov 12-14 include forums, discussions, performances and prayer meetings.

It will culminate in a People’s March and Rally on November 15.

The Group of Twenty (G20) summit brings together the leaders and finance ministers of 19 countries plus the European Union. It is primarily focused on the global economy.

The People’s Summit is also concerned with economic issues, but of quite a different kind. Topics for discussion include growth versus sustainability, climate change, social justice and inequality. “(It is basically) [all] the things the G20 is not talking about,” Ms Taubenfeld said.

These are concerns held by the average citizen, she said. A meeting with so many leaders provides the opportunity to work cooperatively on “global solutions to global crises”.

“They have the capacity to turn climate change around if they want to and that is what we need to demand,” she said, adding, “It is unacceptable that anyone who is concerned about that is being portrayed as the lunatic fringe.”

Massive Security Operation

Brisbane’s Victoria Bridge will be closed to vehicles during the G20 Summit on November 14–16, 2014.

The summit is the largest peace-time security operation in Australia’s history.

Katarina Carroll, Queensland Police Assistant Commissioner US President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are among the 34 “Internationally Protected Leaders” that will descend on Brisbane on November 14-16.

They will be accompanied by an estimated 4,000 delegates and 3,000 representatives from international and local media.

Queensland Police Assistant Commissioner Katarina Carroll says Queensland police have been preparing for the G20 Leader’s Summit for the last two years.

“The summit is the largest peace-time security operation in Australia’s history,” she told a community meeting in Brisbane two weeks ago.

Police have been granted “ad-

ditional powers” under a new law, the G20 (Safety and Security) Act 2013, which was passed by the Queensland Parliament in October last year.

Over 6,000 police have been recruited for the three-day period, including 1,500 police from New Zealand.

“There will be a significant police presence in Brisbane during the summit, and (please) be reassured that we are planning for every possible contingency and obviously hoping for the best case scenario,” Assistant Commissioner Carroll said.

In the lead-up to the event, the Brisbane CBD has endured regular military exercises including Black Hawk helicopter flights, swat team patrols patrolling the Brisbane River and road closures for motorcade practice to and from the airport.

While cultural events, live performances and street theatre have been organised for the weekend, many areas of the city will be in lockdown: declared zones allow limited access while restricted zones will be totally off limits and separated with physical barriers.

Transport will be restricted and major roads in and around the CBD will be closed.

A public holiday has been granted for Friday November 14 and many locals are leaving town for a long weekend.

Amid the threat of rogue ter-

Shar Adams/Epoch Times

The Stanford Hotel Brisbane is expected to accommodate US President Barack Obama and his entourage.

rorists, local media have reported that some anarchist groups may use what is known as Black Bloc tactics, which entail face covering and violence. These tactics were used in protests in the lead-up to the G20 in Toronto in 2010.

Ms Taubenfeld says the fear of violent protest is over-done. She accused authorities of contradictory messages, signalling on the one hand that there is freedom of expression and on the other hand heavy repercussions.

“Their actions and their increased powers, the six thousand

police, the constant media making with the photos of police in riot gear and the language [have] been sanctioned. It certainly discourages people from their right to demonstrate,” she said.

Ms Taubenfeld said security threats created by G20 action in the Middle East were more of a concern than local community groups.

“The US, with Australia, is at war! Those are things that increase security threats, not people exercising their right to democratically express their political concerns,” she said.

Epoch Times

NEWS & PERSPECTIVES

november 7 – 20, 2014

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Brazil: Unlikely Any President Would Have Done Better AP Photo/Eraldo Peres

By Valentin Schmid Epoch Times Staff

Brazil’s main problem is its relationship to the US dollar.

Among all the bashing Brazil’s re-elected President Dilma Rousseff is getting, it has to be said other mainstream candidates would not have done any better.

The Brazilian market crashed 5 percent on the news of her re-election before it recovered, down 2.77 percent at the close. Brazil’s currency, the real, weakened 1.7 percent to 2.52 per US dollar, which is a big move for currencies.

Ironically, with this move, the market alerted us to Brazil’s problem: its relationship to the Fed and the dollar.

Sure, Dilma and her predecessor Lula’s socialist policies, like raising taxes on interest income and spending billions on “social grants”, did not help but only exacerbated the problems of slowing growth, rampant inflation, rising external debt, and a consumer debt bubble.

China As for slowing growth—down 0.9 percent in Q2 2014—China is a major culprit. Like Australia, Brazil exports everything from petroleum to iron ore to China and total trade was US$83 billion (S$107 billion) in 2013.

This works great when China is growing at double digits, like it did until 2010, but not when it is slowing to 7.3 percent, and possibly even lower, as seen in the last quarter. This is unlucky for Rousseff, as she assumed office just when Chinese growth started to level off in early 2011.

The result? Trade only increased 8 percent from 2011 to 2014, as opposed to more than 100 percent from 2009 to 2011.

Fed Funnily enough, Brazil and China find themselves on the same side of the fence when it comes to US monetary policy,

out of the Chinese playbook and started printing money itself to absorb the inflows of US dollars looking for yield in the country.

Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff celebrates her victory at a hotel in Brasilia, Brazil, on Oct 26, 2014. Official results showed that President Rousseff defeated opposition candidate Aecio Neves of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party, and was re-elected Brazil’s president.

albeit Brazil has a trade surplus with China and it has a trade deficit with the United States worth US$16.5 billion (S$21.3 billion) in 2013.

With the Fed dead set on printing money and devaluing the dollar, the trade deficit was only going to get bigger. Also, Brazil receives its oil revenue in dollars and has to convert it back

to reals, losing money when the dollar weakens.

Sounds far-fetched? During the time of the Fed’s QE1 and QE2 programmes (February 2009 to July 2011) the real appreciated 33 percent, making Brazilian exports uncompetitive and devaluing its oil revenue.

It was then that Brazil took a page

Real Crash In an effort to weaken its own currency, the interest fell from 12.25 percent in July 2011 to 7.25 in January 2013. The Central Bank of Brazil expanded its balance sheet by 37 percent, mostly by printing real and buying dollars. Lo and behold, its foreign exchange reserves expanded by 52 percent and the currency crashed by 60 percent.

The Chinese have been doing the same thing for over a decade with mixed results. Yes, it boosts exports temporarily, but it also has some unpleasant side effects.

The printed money finds its way into the banking system and banks are inspired to make risky loans. In China, this led to overinvestment and overbuilding. In Brazil, it led to a consumer credit bubble, with credit expanding from 550 billion real in 2011 to 782 billion in July 2014.

In China, asset prices in the form of real estate went through the roof; in Brazil, we have consumer price inflation at just below 7 percent.

Yes, markets are understandably upset that the more conservative candidate Aecio Neves did not win. However, with conservatives and socialists alike standing idly by as central banks around the world print money, it is very doubtful whether he would have done anything different at all.

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NEWS & PERSPECTIVES

NOVEMBER 7 – 20, 2014

Epoch Times

Here’s Why 90% of Hong Kong Students Aren’t Ending the Umbrella Movement Soon Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images

By Larry Ong Epoch Times Staff Because the kids are here to stay in Hong Kong, they’re not in a hurry to pack up their tents.

Reuters recently conducted an informal survey of the Occupy Central protesters at the onemonth mark of the demonstrations, and found that about nine out of 10 of the mainly student protesters are prepared to camp out in the streets for more than a year.

The student and citizen protesters are demanding that Hong Kong’s Chief Executive be selected by universal suffrage during the next elections in 2017, and are also calling for Leung Chunying, the hugely unpopular current Chief Executive, to resign.

To see their demands met, 87 percent of the students polled said that they are willing to hold out at the protest sites in Admiralty and Mong Kok for more than a year, while 93 percent of them said that they would simply pack up and move to a new location if Hong Kong police do unceremoniously thump them out.

Indeed, with an unusual display of brutality, Hong Kong police battered and bloodied unarmed protesters with their batons and riot gear, and very nearly succeeded in clearing the protesters from Causeway Bay and Mong Kok in the third week of the demonstrations.

The protesters eventually ral-

Dad, you must keep it up. We never stop trying to rescue you.

After so many years, I believe you are truly great. You have always been the one that I look up to.

Danielle Wang

Student leader Joshua Wong

lied, and managed to reclaim the protest site in Mong Kok on Oct 17.

To a casual observer, the students’ resilience in the face of police violence and government apathy looks almost foolhardy, especially when considering their seemingly idealistic demands.

After all, the Hong Kong government is on Beijing’s side and totally unsympathetic to the students’ demands, and the Chinese communist regime is dead set on not fulfilling its promise to introduce democratic reform to the former British colony.

But for the youths of Hong Kong, getting their democratic rights now is a very real, pragmatic step towards securing their future.

The rising prices and growing income inequality in Hong Kong does not affect the ever-increasing number of tycoons, but is

A pro-democracy protester sleeps on a street in the Mongkok district of Hong Kong on October 28, 2014.

already causing problems for the young people who are just starting out in their careers.

“Job prospects are depressing; rents and real estate are beyond most young people’s means,” notes Scholarism student leader Joshua Wong in an interview with New York Times.

“The city’s wealth gap is cavernous.

“My generation could be the first in Hong Kong to be worse off than our parents,” adds the 18-year-old, who is arguably the

most famous face in the Umbrella Movement.

Hong Kong’s income inequality will only exacerbate in the future, and will be made worse

by Hong Kong’s serious fertility problem.

According to the Hong Kong government’s estimates, “elderly dependents” (those aged 65 and above) will make up almost half of Hong Kong’s seven million population, and caring for them both physically and financially will place a heavy burden on the

young protestors and their peers.

With such a “bleak economic situation” to look forward to, no wonder the youths of Hong Kong are refusing to leave the streets until their cries are heard and acted upon before it is too late.

Perhaps Wong best sums up the hopes of Hong Kong’s students: “In a world where ideas and ideals flow freely, we want what everybody else in an advanced society seems to have: a say in our future.”

Daughter Encourages Prisoner of Conscience as Father is Abducted to Brainwashing Centre

By Gao Tianyun Epoch Times Staff While the rule of law was touted as the foundation of governance at a high-level political conclave in Beijing, prisoners of conscience continue to endure incomprehensible treatment.

Wang Zhiwen, a Falun Gong practitioner in China, was released on Oct 18 this year after serving 15 years of his 16-year sentence. His

crime? For peacefully talking to then Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji to end the start of human rights abuses against his fellow practitioners. That was in 1999.

The police abducted Wang and took him to a brainwashing centre in Beijing after his recent release.

“A prison is at least part of the legal system. The brainwashing centres are not. They are not even legal,” said his daughter Danielle in an interview with Epoch Times.

“Dad, you must keep it up. We

never stop trying to rescue you.

After so many years, I believe you are truly great. You have always been the one that I look up to,” Danielle recalled telling her father on the phone while Wang was being taken to a brainwashing centre.

“Dad, I miss you. I miss you so much. And I have been waiting for you for so long,” said Danielle, while tears poured down her face.

A relative who went to meet Wang on the day of his release,

said that Wang had a stiff face and a slanted mouth due to a recent stroke. He also suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes.

Wang left the hospital the day before his release from prison.

“Why did dad have to stay in a hospital until one day before he was released?” said Danielle, who professed she was traumatised by the news.

Danielle is currently living in New York. Her aunt in China managed to hand a phone to

Epoch Times

NEWS & PERSPECTIVES

NOVEMBER 7 – 20, 2014

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Huawei Accused of Hacking Government Inboxes and Forging Documents in South Sudan STR/AFP/Getty Images

By Joshua Philipp Epoch Times Staff Chinese telecom company Huawei is being accused of forging government documents and hacking government emails in South Sudan.

Michael Leuth, head of South Sudan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, outlined the claims in an Oct 14 complaint he sent to South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“Huawei attempted to send a forged document to Hon. Li Ruogu, the President of the Export-Import Bank of China, on my behalf,” Leuth states in the letter.

He adds, “I suspect that Huawei has been hacking many government e-mail (accounts) and falsifying and forging documents on behalf of [senior] government officials.”

Huawei has garnered heavy controversy around the world over security concerns. On Oct 8, 2012, the US Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released a report outlining national security risks from Huawei and another Chinese telecom, ZTE. The report claimed, among other things, that the Chinese companies have shadowy structures and refused to explain their relations with the Chinese regime. The companies, it claimed, may use their technologies to install backdoors that can then be used for espionage.

I suspect that Huawei has been hacking many government email (accounts) and falsifying and forging documents on behalf of [senior] government officials.

Michael Leuth, head of South Sudan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting A receptionist sits behind the counter at the telecommunications firm Huawei Technologies in Wuhan, China, on Oct 8, 2012. Huawei is being accused of forging government documents and hacking emails in South Sudan.

The report was dismissed by Huawei and several major news outlets have repeated Huawei’s claims uncritically. Nonetheless, security concerns around Huawei continue to emerge.

Huawei is banned for use by the United States and Australian governments. The British government also stopped using Huawei devices in January because of security concerns.

The Washington Times reported on Oct 15 that Huawei tried breaching the NSA’s computer networks this year.

The European Union also

launched a probe into Huawei security, which it recently dropped before completion.

The probe was ended just before Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s Oct 18 meeting with senior EU officials at a summit in Milan.

The new case in South Sudan could be a major piece of evidence of security concerns regarding Huawei.

Leuth said he summoned Huawei’s managing director and other senior staff on Oct 10 “to come and explain their intention”. He said none of them responded.

Leuth then requested an official investigation into Huawei and Huawei’s Sullivan Chen who allegedly forged the document. If found guilty, Leuth asked that Chen be deported back to China. He also asked that the Chinese embassy be informed.

“We are shocked by this Chinese private company’s unbecoming behaviour, which is tantamount to forgery,” he states.

“Huawei wanted to create confusion between our government and the Chinese.”

Politics already seem to be get-

ting in the way, however. The Sudan Tribune reported that South Sudan vowed to not expel any member of Huawei.

An unnamed Sudanese senior foreign affairs official told the publication: “I don’t think it will be in the best interest of South Sudan as a country and the government to expel [the] Chinese company about this claim,” noting that many foreign companies in China are governmentowned.

“This requires prudence so that they do not slip into foreign relations,” he said.

Lisa Fan/Epoch Times

Wang before he was taken away, and Danielle was able to speak to her father for about five minutes.

Wang was one of three representatives of Falun Gong who talked to then Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji on April 25, 1999.

Following the beating and arrest of Falun Gong practitioners in the city of Tianjin on April 23 that year, over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered peacefully in Beijing to assert their constitutionally guaranteed right to their beliefs.

Zhu agreed to release those arrested in Tianjin and gave assurances that Falun Gong can be practised without interference in China.

Zhu’s reassurances did not materialize. Nationwide persecution of Falun Gong practitioners began on July 20, 1999 by Jiang Zemin.

Wang was arrested early that morning and has been detained ever since.

“When my relatives in China visited my father, he would always finish the food that they brought very quickly. I think that he didn’t have much to eat while in prison,” said Danielle.

“He was severely beaten in prison. All 10 of his fingers had bamboo sticks jammed under his fingernails. He once had a fractured skull after being beaten. He lost some teeth and was always being deprived of sleep,” Danielle said.

Danielle Wang, daughter of Wang Zhiwen, testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Dec 5, 2013. On Oct 18, Wang Zhiwen was abducted to a brainwashing centre in Beijing immediately upon release from prison.

10 NOVEMBER 7 – 20, 2014

NEWS & PERSPECTIVES

Epoch Times

Steve Ispas/Epoch Times

Accounts of Patients Who Received Organs Superfast in China

By Lu Chen Epoch Times Staff A Taiwanese patient received a matching liver and a matching kidney within only a month in a hospital in a city in northern China, according to an exclusive interview on Oct 30 by the New

York-based, Chinese-language television network New Tang Dynasty.

The extremely short waiting time for organ transplants has made China the most popular country for transplantation tourism in which patients from other countries travel to China for organ transplant surgeries. The av-

erage waiting time for a patient in the United States to receive a matching kidney is four to five years, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services in March.

The Taiwanese patient with cirrhosis went to China on a tourist visa and arrived at the Tianjin First Centre Hospital in Tianjin City in September 2012.

The decision to have two organ transplants was in fact recommended by the surgeon, according to the patient’s family member, who does not want to reveal his name.

“We planned to have a liver transplant originally. [But] the surgeon suggested we transplant both liver and kidney at once instead of transplanting a kidney in the future,” the family member said.

Such a marketing-like suggestion for more transplants is “ridiculous,” and having a matching liver and kidney at the same time is impossible in Taiwan, the NTD report says.

However, finding matching organ sources was not a problem at all in this case: Within one month, the patient was informed

I didn’t even know what the matching condition was.

Family member of the Taiwanese patient

by the hospital that both matching organs had been found.

The patient and family were given scant information about the sources of the organs, the family member indicated. “I didn’t even know what the matching condition was,” he said.

The family member indicated that a special patient area specifically set up for international patients for organ transplant surgery was on the 10th floor of the hospital and security for the area was particulary strict.

The total organ transplant trip lasted for three months in mainland China and cost the patient and his family about US$500,000 (S$643,000) in total. However, the patient has suffered infection and stroke, and has remained hospitalised, the family said.

Their waiting time of a month is not considered fast at the hospital, as another patient received an organ transplant within one week, the family member said.

Similarly short waiting periods for organ transplants have also been reported by Chinese state-run media. Uremia patient Xue Yanlin received two kidney transplants in 48 hours at Beijing’s Haidian Hospital in December 2004, according to the state-run Beijing Times.

Xue was hospitalised on Dec 19, 2004, and only nine days later, she was informed by the hospital that a matched kidney was found.

She received transplantation surgery conducted by Dr Han Xiuwu on the evening of Dec 28.

On the day of the surgery, Xue repeatedly said, “How come it’s so fast? I’m not even prepared yet,” Xue’s husband told South magazine, which is sponsored by the Chinese Communist Party Guangdong Province Committee.

David Matas, international human rights lawyer and co-author with David Kilgour of “Bloody Harvest: Revised Report Into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China”, in San Francisco, Calif., July 29, 2014.

NEWS & PERSPECTIVES

Epoch Times

NOVEMBER 7 – 20, 2014 11

Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images

The first transplant failed due to organ rejection. Xue was told to have another kidney transplant on Dec 30 because a new source was found, but that transplant also failed. Xue passed away on Jan 30, 2005.

Since the start of a state-wide persecution campaign against the Falun Gong spiritual practice in 1999, the number of transplantations in China has rapidly increased. China now performs the second largest number of organ transplants after the United States.

The president of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Chen Guihua, also an expert on liver transplantation, conducted 246 liver transplants in the year 2005, which was one-

third of the number performed in China during the previous 12 years, according to South magazine.

China has never fully disclosed the sources of the organs that make possible the boom in transplantation. In Nov 2012, China’s Vice-Minister of Health Huang Jiefu told the Chinese press that China’s organ transplantation has long relied on executed prisoners.

However, China’s organ sources are chaotic, and illegal organ trading and organ transplant tourism are rampant, Huang said.

Several international investigations and reports in recent years have pointed out that there are not enough death penalty prisoners in China to provide the organs

needed. The large shortfall is compensated by forced harvesting of organs from live prisoners of conscience in China, the reports say.

Groundbreaking research was done by former Canadian Secretary of State David Kilgour and Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas in the report-turnedbook, “Bloody Harvest”. Kilgour and Matas concluded that in the years 2000–2005, the most likely source of the organs for 41,500 transplantation operations was detained Falun Gong practitioners.

After seven years of research, veteran investigative reporter and China expert Ethan Gutmann published the book “The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvest-

NINE COMMENTARIES

If a religious group is intolerant of other beliefs, it is religious fundamentalism. If its ideology violates common human morality, it is religious extremism. If it kills and injures on the justification of this ideology, it is religious terrorism. If it indoctrinates, worships a self-appointed and messianic leader and believes that the ends justify the means, it is a destructive cult.

If its doctrine is not founded on the belief in any particular god, but the denial of god, it is the Communist Party of

Two doctors perform surgery in southwest China’s Chongqing, on Aug 9, 2013. A patient received a matching liver and kidney for transplant surgeries within only a month in Tianjin City, according to New Tang Dynasty Television.

ing, and China’s Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem”. The book uses interviews with Falun Gong practitioners who survived the

The Corresponding Forms of the CCP

China.

As the incumbent government of China, it cloaked itself in legitimacy through censorship and propaganda.

But historically, from its pious worship of Mao and Marx and its exhortation on its people to engage in a life-long struggle to build a “communist heaven on earth”, its similarities with a cult are more than skin deep.

Oath taking ceremony to swear allegiance to CCP

Media monopolized by the CCP

Marxism-Leninism, Maoism

Adapted from Commentary 8, On How the Chinese Communist Party Is an Evil Cult

182,378,946

people have renounced the CCP as of November 4, 2014.

Initiation Rites

Official Platform to disseminate information

Religious Doctrines

Scriptures

Struggle sessions

Religious congregation

Songs to eulogize the Party or “Hong Ge”

Hymns

In-house Party discipline ranging from house arrest, expulsion, to torture

http://goo.gl/yQ2Jox

Quitting the Chinese Communist Party www.NineCommentaries.com

Thousands of Chinese people are quitting the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliate organisations every day through a special website established by The Epoch Times. Others are quitting by calling an international hotline, posting statements

The Basic Forms of a Religion

Quotations from Mao, or “The Little Red Book”

It was famously said that Communist regimes turned mass crime into a full blown system of government. Each of them has received its just verdict in history – all but the Communist Party of China which has persisted to this day.

The “Nine Commentaries” is an award winning editorial series that offers a vivid and perceptive account of the CCP from its inception to the present. By unmasking its perversion, Nine Commentaries seeks to recall the Chinese people and the world from the slumber of ignorance and inaction.

Thus far, the series first published in November 2004 has led more than 170 million Chinese to renounce the CCP and its affiliations, trailblazing a massive yet peaceful movement for China’s transformation and change.

Read more of this groundbreaking editorial series at:

Chinese regime’s labour camps and other evidence to give a fuller picture of forced organ harvesting in China.

on public walls and poles, or writing on banknotes.

Read the full “Nine Commentaries” book, as well as recent statements from Chinese people who have quit the Party, at www.theepochtimes.com

Religious Discipline

12 NOVEMBER 7 – 20, 2014

BUSINESS & PROPERTY

www.TheEpochTimes.com

How to Earn a Promotion JGI/Jamie Grill VIA GETTY IMAGES

The one common theme that is consistent with all the executives that I come in contact with when discussing promotions and career advancement is attitude.

By Song Woo Career Corner I was in line at Starbucks the other day and oddly enough, someone recognised me from the previous column and mentioned that I looked younger in person. I wasn’t sure if she was telling the truth or just buttering me up for some free advice. Nevertheless, I thanked her.

Right before I placed my order, she asked me if she could buy me some coffee and sit down for a few minutes with her.

Robert Daly VIA GETTY IMAGES

What is the “right” attitude needed to earn a promotion?

So we sat down, “free” coffee in hand, and I said, “Fire away, how can I help you?”

“I have a problem,” she explained. “My dilemma is that I’ve been stuck in the same role for the last few years. What can I do to get a promotion?”

“First of all,” I said, “you should be thankful you have a job.” However, the frown on her face told me she wasn’t too amused with my sense of humour. So, Julie from San José, this column is dedicated to you.

Getting a promotion isn’t something you’re entitled to. In fact, that phrase bothers me a little bit. I prefer the phrase “earning a promotion”.

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24 stylish T-Shirts to be given away ! $20 worth O+ men’s & ladies’

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Participation till 31 Dec 2014

Sometimes I would hear people talking about how they never miss a day, they are always on time, and that they do good work. Yet, they haven’t moved up the ladder as they had hoped.

What some people fail to realise is that these are all the things that are expected of an employee as a minimum standard. Just doing your job well is not good enough. That’s why you were hired in the first place. You weren’t hired to do a mediocre job, to miss work, or be late from time to time.

Here’s a mathematical formula I like to use: Show up + be on time + good performance = keep your job + your compensation You have to understand the employer’s perspective. If you were the employer, who would you promote? Who would you entrust a multi-million or a multi-billion dollar business to?

The one common theme that is consistent with all the executives that I come in contact with when discussing promotions and career advancement is attitude. One by one, every executive will always talk about needing someone with the right attitude.

So what is the “right” attitude needed to earn a promotion?

Ask yourself if you are just doing your job, or if you are doing things outside your job scope knowing that you won’t get paid for that type of work. This is a very important factor

because it shows the employer that you are not selfish and are committed to the greater good of the company.

Early on in my career, I helped train and mentor new coworkers without anyone ever asking me or giving me that responsibility. I did that not because I was a saint, but in our business, we were only as good as the weakest link. Thus, if someone wasn’t doing well or didn’t know what to do, the overall business unit would suffer.

I took a lot of pride when our unit did well overall. I was also very passionate and believed that the only way I could be truly successful is if we were successful as a team and as a company.

I didn’t know it initially, but this was the biggest factor that played a role in my first big promotion. I went out of my way and did more than was expected and demonstrated that I truly cared about the company without expecting anything in return. I earned my promotion.

Thanks for the coffee, Julie!

Song Woo, an award-winning employment and career management expert, is the President and CEO of Lighthouse Management Group. He has been featured in both print and electronic media for expertise in employment trends and career management. In addition, Lighthouse Management Group has also been honoured as the #1 Fastest Growing Private Company in Silicon Valley.

Epoch Times

Business & Property

NOVEMBER 7 – 20, 2014 13

Supply Chain Competition to Engage Local Young Talents

By Joel Nguyen Epoch Times Staff The supply chain competition organised by Supply Chain Asia (SCA) is going to enter its final round. The competition is based on a business simulation game called “The Fresh Connection”, in which teams of participants are required to make strategic decisions that can help to turn around a manufacturing company of fruit juices. The preliminary rounds of the competition were on Oct 25 and Nov 1, and the top teams will compete in the finals on Jan 15, 2015.

The competition, which is open to tertiary students and industry professionals, is for the first time supported by both Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB) and Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA).

According to Mr Lee Eng Keat, Director of Logistics, EDB, “The burgeoning logistics and supply chain management industry in Singapore has created exciting job opportunities, making training and retaining young talent critical for the develop-

SUN MINGGUO/EPOCH TIMES

“The Supply Chain Competition is unique as its engaging gameplay is targeted to attract the young and IT-savvy. Technology is the main driver of Supply Chain solutions today and will continue to be in the years to come.”

“By organising activities such as the Supply Chain Competition, we can stimulate and promote greater awareness and interest among the young to build solid careers in the SCM industry. Through this competition, the students can discover how supply chains work as they confront various real-life, real-time dilemmas and learning. They can also get the feel of managing inventory, and developing operations and supplier management skills”, adds Mr Lim. The finals of the competition will be held during the Supply Mr Lee Eng Keat (L), Director of Logistics at Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB), and Mr Paul Lim (R), Chain Asia Leadership Forum.

President of Supply Chain Asia Winners of the competition will be awarded at the end of the Foment of the industry. Through Logistics and supply chain gross domestic product in 2013. rum and have the opportunity this game, students seeking management is indeed a bur- In addition, last year, the num- to network with the leaders of intellectually challenging and geoning industry in Singapore. ber of logistics professionals in Singapore’s supply chain indusrewarding work experiences The country was ranked as the Singapore was around 192,600, try. would be able to appreciate the No. 1 Logistics hub in Asia in which makes up 9% of the councomplexities of supply chain the 2014 Logistics Performance try’s total workforce.

Quotes and materials for this operations and be engaged with Index, and the sector contribAccording to Mr Paul Lim, article are from SCA’s press what the industry has to offer.” uted around 7% to the national Founder and President of SCA, release.

14 November 7 – 20, 2014

BUSINESS & PROPERTY

Epoch Times

Government Approval Not Enough, Businesses Need Social Licence sean gardner/getty images

By John Morrison There was a time when signing a piece of paper and a handshake were enough for companies to start a factory or mine. This is how business still works in many places, but globalisation—delivering economic development to all corners of the planet—is also bringing greater awareness about social, economic, and environmental consequences.

Now, business also needs the consent of local people and not just a certificate from the town hall or central government. Such consent is increasingly linked to the concept of “social licence” required for an activity to proceed without community opposition including roadblocks, sit-ins, boycotts, or NGO campaigns.

The term “social licence to operate” first arose in the extractive sectors, as Bruce Harvey, long-time Australian mining hand, puts it: “In an increasing world of scrutiny and mobilisation of local voices, if you don’t have the broad-based support of local people for what you want to do, then you won’t get your legal licence.”

There are many examples where the absence of social licence has resulted in project delays and cancellations, from dam building in Burma and oil production in Niger Delta to genetically modified crops in Europe and nuclear power in Germany.

Businesses need three forms of licence— political, legal, and social—to proceed with certainty. But whose permission is required? Who needs to be consulted and fundamentally whose consent must be secured? In my book “The Social Licence”, I argue that trust, legitimacy, and consent are essential components for any understanding of how business activities impact the pre-existing social contract that binds any society or community.

BP Deepwater Horizon Consider one of the most high-profile business disasters of recent times. BP’s Deepwater Horizon, an oil drilling facility, blew up in April 2010, killing 11 men and causing about US$40 billion (S$51.6 billion) liability for the company, not to mention reputation damage. The deep-water operation certainly had its legal licence, and the company might well have assumed political licence, given the US government’s moves toward energy security. But social licence for a drilling platform far off the coast?

BP clearly understood the value of social licence—at least for some of its projects— and invested time and resources to gain the consent of local populations and ensure security for oil and gas pipelines in Indonesia, from the Caspian to Mediterranean seas, and Colombia. International human

A protest on the first day of the trial over the Deep Water Horizon oil rig spill in New Orleans on Feb 25, 2013.

rights NGOs, former US senators, anthropologists, and community experts were involved as independent voices.

So-called multi-stakeholder approaches to understanding risks, possible impacts, and company mitigations can achieve a level of consensus surrounding the proactive steps that a company takes to reduce risk while protecting well-being and livelihoods. Crises might still happen to good companies and their activities, but strong stakeholder relations that are built on meaningful consent will strengthen the social licence.

BP’s tragic Gulf of Mexico spill cannot be explained purely in social licence terms.

The crisis may have unfolded in the same way had BP engaged their competitors, the US government, international NGOs, and local communities in the risks associated with deep-water drilling and to review expectations and plan risk reduction. There would still have been fines, although perhaps not at the scale now predicted, as well as bad publicity and rightly so.

But the complete loss of political and social licence in the weeks following the disaster owe much to the fact that BP’s competitors, NGOs, trade unions, community groups, and government agencies found no reason to defend the company or its actions.

Such players had no stake in the company’s risk mitigation programme. Few outside of the industry had participated in discussing the social risks of deep-water drilling or could determine whether the company was taking adequate precautions.

Not About PR It is not an argument for good public relations. Unlike public relations, companies

cannot self-award a social licence for their activities; rather, they must earn it by involving others, including their competitors, communities and NGOs, in achieving levels of consensus that both reduce the risk of bad events and, when they do happen, also involve others in achieving adequate remedies.

It is always easier to observe the absence of social licence than its presence, and examples of its existence are bound to be contested, but here are two examples.

The bulk text-messaging service of Safaricom in Kenya was thought to have inadvertently fuelled ethnic violence in the Rift Valley following the 2008 elections. Instead of engaging in denials or a glossy public relations campaign, the company developed careful protocols for the 2012 elections— including the involvement of third-party observers in how the company dealt with hate speech while maintaining freedom of expression to the highest possible degree.

Safaricom remains one of the most popular and trusted companies in Kenya—and one could easily say that its activities enjoy strong social licence.

Likewise, the Gap Inc. clothing company faced much criticism for its sourcing activities in Cambodia in the late 1990s. Gap subsequently engage in multi-stakeholder efforts in the early 2000s, resulting in its 2004 Social Report that set a new standard in corporate human rights transparency for its time. Importantly, the report set out “gray areas” where the risk of child labour and bonded-labour was likely to still exist despite the company’s best preventive measures. Stakeholders recognised that Gap Inc. was indeed doing as much or more than its competitors.

So, when the BBC broke the news alleging use of bonded labour by a Gap supplier near Delhi in 2008, the company in many ways did not have to defend itself in the classic public relations sense. Rather, the chairman of the multi-stakeholder Ethical Trading Initiative and the main trade union involved joined the company’s defence. The charges did not dominate the headlines in the way that the Cambodia allegations had done years before—trust was maintained.

Gap Inc. had secured social licence for its activities, and its risk mitigation and efforts on fair labour were robust enough to suggest that the violation was an aberration.

But it should not be inferred that Gap enjoys similar social licence for other activities, or that its social licence in India is indefinite.

Maintaining social licence for specific activities requires an ongoing commitment to engaging with those outside of the business, be they communities, trade unions, NGOs, suppliers or competitors.

An Essential Asset While a social licence might seem like an intangible asset for many companies, it is an increasingly essential one. A recent study by Queensland University actually values such a licence as worth up to US$20 million (S$25.8 million) a week for large mining operations should they be blocked by local communities.

Political leaders might also take interest in the concept as it does not just apply to business activities. It was clear that during the recent run-up to the Scottish referendum, all three leaders of the UK’s main political parties had lost social licence in Scotland. They had in many ways become a liability for their own cause, saved only during the final hours with an appeal for unity by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

While community consent is not an absolute and most do not eliminate the “not in my back yard” (NIMBY) complaints, social licence is set to move central stage in discussions about how activities achieve legitimacy in the eyes of society in a globalised economy.

John Morrison has been executive director of the Institute for Human Rights and Business since its founding in April 2009.

The institute is a global “think and do” tank on human rights policy and practice that works with governments, business, civil society and trade unions to tackle systemic dilemmas. He is author of “The Social Licence: How to Keep Your Organisation Legitimate”. © 2014 The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Centre for International and Area Studies at Yale.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Epoch Times.

Epoch Times

BUSINESS & PROPERTY

November 7 – 20, 2014 15

Malaysia, Backed by Strong Growing Economy, Is Still Buyers’ Choice for the Long Term Epoch Times

By Michael Ng Epoch Times Staff Be it Iskandar Malaysia (IM), Kuala Lumpur, or Penang, the rich platter of residential, commercial and industrial options for buyers and investors spells optimism in the face of a slate of measures to curb property speculation, which incidentally contribute to market slowdown to the advantage of those seriously going for the mid- to long-term investment.

At the Epoch Times Property Seminar Series talks held last Saturday afternoon, speakers from the Mah Sing Group, the Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA), Landserve, and CB Richard Ellis provided first-hand market perspectives on what’s in store for buyers and investors in the Malaysian property market amidst recent developments.

Speaking at the seminar is Sr Khaidzir A. Rasip, Senior Vice President of Strategic Communications at IRDA who advised investors to look at long-term potentials when considering Iskandar Malaysia, an area about three times (2,217 square kilometers) the size of Singapore earmarked in 2006 to be the first of Malaysia’s five economic corridors.

IRDA is an agency set up to facilitate the promotion, planning, processing and infrastructure development of Iskandar Malaysia.

As of September 2014, IM attracted huge cumulative committed investments of RM156.35 (SGD60.75) billion distributed among the manufacturing (32.58%) and property (24.68%) sectors with 37.40% coming from the rest of utilities, emerging technology, tourism, education, healthcare, creative, financial, logistics, retail, and industrial sectors.

IM sees no slowing down of economic growth when it started in 2006 with RM11.30 (SGD4) billion committed investments, achieving a growth rate of 18.77% last year. Foreign investments figure at 37% (Sep’14) of total cumulative committed investment with Singapore being the largest foreign investor at RM12 (SGD4.66) billion (Sep’14). With its well-planned educational, residential, commercial and industrial hubs, IM is vying to be a much cheaper and attractive alternative for Singaporeans to play, work, and live.

Khaidzir pointed to infrastructure investments that make IM even more attractive to Singapore buyers.

A Rapid Transit System accessible from the causeway is being built with full integration to other inter- and intra-city transportation system. More than 415 CCTV cameras have been installed and coordinated by 12 Command Centers.

More than 60 Community Police Posts

With its well-planned educational, residential, commercial and industrial hubs, Iskandar Malaysia is vying to be a much cheaper and attractive alternative for Singaporeans to play, work, and live. and 5,344 auxiliary police will ensure the safety and security of people working and living in Iskandar Malaysia.

But as expected, the government steps in when the property market is overheated. Current cooling measures include a 70% loan-to-value ratio restriction on buyer’s third home purchase, abolition of the developer interest bearing scheme, capping of loan tenures to a maximum of 35 years, and 2% levy on foreign purchases (May 2014). The threshold of foreign purchases has been raised to RM1 million in May 2014 (higher in other parts of Malaysia) and the real property gains tax stands at 30% (Jan 2014).

While this may appear turbulent for property developers, demand for landed residential units, shop offices and industrial units are still strong, according to Wee Soon Chit from Landserve (Johor) Sendirian Berhad (Private Limited), who also spoke at the seminar. He shared that there is still value buy at IM as prices will continue to go up but buyers must buy from their position of strength.

With a projected population of two million in IM by 2017, there is a projected availability of 431,140 landed residential units, 117,155 high-rise residential units, 55,214 commercial units (shops), and 13,059 industrial units according to Wee. Landed residential property is expected to continue to outperform high-rise developments while office supply lags behind the supply of residential property.

Vincent Tan, Head of Singapore Region Office, Mah Sing Group Berhad, is convinced that Malaysian properties have yet to reach its peak. With a young population and a rising middle-income group, demand will outpace supply and the property market is sustainable with no property bubble, particularly when the Malaysian government is aggressively achieving its Tenth Malaysia Plan and turning Malaysia into a high-income economy with an increased per capita income of over RM48,000 (SGD18,650) in 2020 from only RM23,700 (SGD9,208) in 2009.

Epoch Times

Participants’ interests were elevated towards the end of the seminar as they reached for more information on Mah Sing properties after the talks.

With low interest loans of below 5%, Vincent shared that there is steady demand for properties in strategic locations by reputable developers. There will be continued focus on the residential segment, with 87% of residential homes going for less than RM1 million (SGD390,000). For instance, The Costal, a freehold prime life-style residential property by the Mah Sing Group is priced from RM603,000 (SGD234,290).

Another speaker Amy Wong, Executive Vice President of Research & Consultancy, CB Richard Ellis Sendirian Berhad, told buyers that Malaysia is committed to improving infrastructure and that transport and property is very connected.

Of particular interest is the KL-Singapore High Speed Rail that is slated to complete in year 2020. By then, a trip to Kuala Lumpur is a swift 90 minutes ride. The trains will also connect areas such as Selangor that used to be suburbs.

The seminar attracted prospective buyers who have found the information shared by the speakers to be informative.

Ivan Seah is keen to find out about Malaysia properties and plans to buy one within the next 3 to 4 years. He has found the IM plans and focus of developments shared by Khaidzir to be useful.

Lenny, a Malaysian who is a permanent resident in Singapore attended the talk as he plans to purchase residential properties in IM. He is going for medium to longterm investment as he felt Malaysia has strong growth potential but will take a while to get up to speed, as it is a big country compared to Singapore.

The seminar is sponsored by the Mah Sing Group, one of Malaysia’s fullyintegrated developers with a total of 49 projects and more than 100 awards for projects and corporate performance. It has 7 projects in IM, the latest being the Meridin@Medini (Phase 2) and the Bandar Meridin East, an integrated township development located in between Pasir Gudang and Tanjung Langsat.

Terrace houses are open for registration with prices starting from RM300,000.

Foreigners in Malaysia are permitted to buy strata and landed strata properties.

16 NOVEMber 7 – 20, 2014

Technology & science

www.TheEpochTimes.com

Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images

Ted S. Warren/AP Photo | effects added by Epoch times

Infographic by Microsoft

(L) A Nokia employee displays a new Nokia Lumia 635 at More Lumia, a media event in San Francisco, California, on April 2, 2014.

(Top, R) The Microsoft Corp. logo outside the Microsoft Visitor Centre in Redmond, Washington, on July 3, 2014.

Can This US$100 Microsoft Smartphone Be Better Than the iPhone?

It’s Microsoft’s turn to attack the iPhone in its latest marketing campaign – but will it work?

By Zach Epstein BGR.COM When in doubt, attack the iPhone. This is a strategy that has been employed countless times over the past seven years, ever since Apple’s iPhone made its debut and turned the smartphone industry on its head in 2007.

One company actually man-

aged to turn iPhone-bashing into a successful business, but it costs Samsung double-digit billions in marketing money each year to make its anti-Apple campaign work. Of course, most companies don’t have that kind of money to spend on marketing and advertising, so they haven’t fared quite as well.

Microsoft is no stranger to targeting Apple in marketing, of course, and its latest effort is

one of its most curious to date.

In a tweet from late October addressed to “#TeamLumia”, Nokia US — an account now operated by Microsoft following its acquisition of Nokia’s phone business — asked users, “Can you tell us which is the better deal?”

A small “infographic” was attached to the tweet.

On the left side of the graphic sits an iPhone above a US$700

(S$902) price tag. On the right side, we find nearly a dozen Microsoft products highlighted by the company’s US$100 (S$129) Lumia 635 budget smartphone.

Included with the phone are a portable charger, headphones, Office Mobile software, a OneDrive subscription, a portable Bluetooth speaker, free Xbox games and more, the combined cost of which is just US$269.99

(S$348) for the end user.

This latest effort from Microsoft brings to mind a wellknown Oscar Wilde quote, where he described a cynic as “a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing”.

Microsoft’s full infographic is seen above.

Republished with permission from BGR.

Epoch Times

technology & science

NOVEMber 7 – 20, 2014 17

London’s Red Phone Boxes Go Green Now you can hop into one and charge your phone!

Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images

By Arwa Lodhi EluxeMagazine.com Let’s face it–London’s icons are a bit old. Those double decker buses were so dangerous, they were replaced (imagine walking down the bus stairs, holding bags and in heels while the bus turns a corner!). The black taxis belch diesel and are clunky and noisy. And those red pillar phone boxes…well, who uses phone boxes anymore?

The answer is: you do!

Thanks to an idea from Harold Craston and Kirsty Kenny, two former geography students at London School of Economics, tourists and Londoners alike will be once again searching for a phone box–but this time, to charge their phones via roof fitted solar panels.

Logically, the boxes will be painted green, and to pay for

the free service, adverts will be broadcast as you wait for the device to charge. So far, Tinder and Uber have signed up as advertisers. Interestingly, the latter is set to replace those old-fashioned black cabs with cheaper, more eco-friendly rides (most Uber Pop vehicles in London are hybrids or electric).

The Solarbox project came in second place in the Mayor of London’s Low Carbon Entrepreneur of the Year Award earlier this year and also won the LSE’s Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Happily, the winner was also a ‘green’ project called the Crowd Power Plant, an alternative way of purchasing and funding renewable energy.

Craston told the BBC: “I lived next to a phone box in my second year at uni and walked

past it every day. I thought, ‘There are 8,000 of these lying unused in London and we must be able to find a use for them.’”

The solarbox can charge up to 100 phones a day, offering a 20 percent battery boost in 10 minutes. Craston said that the booths will serve about six people per hour, and will provide a much-needed service in the age of smart phone reliance. Craston admitted that on the day of the launch of his project, “[his] phone ran out of battery and [he] genuinely had to use the box”.

The boxes will be regularly maintained and locked overnight to prevent theft and vandalism–shame for those needing a quick charge to call a late night Uber, though.

This article was originally published by Eluxe Magazine.

A traditional London telephone box (R) transformed into a solar-powered mobile phone charger is pictured next to a traditional red telephone box in central London, on October 1, 2014.

18

November 7 – 20, 2014

TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCE

Epoch Times

BEYOND SCIENCE

Prominent Chemist Says Scientists Don’t Really Understand Evolution Shutterstock

By Tara MacIsaac Epoch Times Staff The universe is full of mysteries that challenge our current knowledge. In “Beyond Science”, Epoch Times collects stories about these strange phenomena to stimulate the imagination and open up previously undreamed of possibilities. Are they true? You decide.

Dr James Tour understands microevolution; he has observed it often in the lab. But macroevolution—the evolution that, according to Darwinism, changed entire species, morphed organs, accomplished so many complex developments simultaneously to form human beings and the flora and fauna of our world—stumps Dr Tour.

He has no idea how this could work, and neither do the Nobel Prize winning chemists and National Academy members he’s asked to explain it.

Behind closed doors, Tour says, the leading chemists in the world will admit they have no idea how evolution works.

He’s called out to the scientific community in search of anyone who can explain to him how macro-evolution could work, and not a single chemist has met the challenge.

Dr Tour was confirmed as one of the 10 most-cited scientists in the world in 2010. His work on nanotechnology is worldrenowned. He is a chemistry professor at Rice University, he received his PhD in organic chemistry at Purdue University and was a post-doctoral Fellow at Stanford University.

He does not espouse intelligent design, but he is open about his faith in God. He is a Messianic Jew, who “does not wear his religion on his sleeve, but … will bring it up if asked, and if asked … does not hold back”, his colleagues told the Houston Chronicle in 2010.

He said during a talk at Georgia Tech on Nov 1, 2012 titled “Nanotech and Jesus Christ”, posted on YouTube (skip forward to about 52 minutes into

(L) Dr James Tour (Courtesy of James Tour). (R) Depiction of human evolution.

(Background) Illustration of DNA.

the video if you want to watch it yourself): “I will tell you as a scientist and a synthetic chemist, if anybody should be able to understand evolution, it is me, because I make molecules for a living, and I don’t just buy a kit, and mix this and mix this, and get that. I mean, ab initio, I make molecules. I understand how hard it is to make molecules.

“I don’t understand evolution, and I will confess that to you. Is it OK, for me to say, ‘I don’t understand this’? Is that all right?

I know that there’s a lot of people out there that don’t understand anything about organic synthesis, but they understand evolution. I understand a lot about making molecules; I don’t understand evolution.

And you would just say that, wow, I must be really unusual.

“Let me tell you what goes on

in the back rooms of science— with National Academy members, with Nobel Prize winners.

I have sat with them, and when I get them alone, not in public—because it’s a scary thing, if you say what I just said—I say, ‘Do you understand all of this, where all of this came from, and how this happens?’

Every time that I have sat with people who are synthetic chemists, who understand this, they go, ‘Uh-uh. Nope.’ … And if they’re afraid to say ‘Yes,’ they say nothing. They just stare at me, because they can’t sincerely do it.”

Tour’s talents in the lab have earned him praise. For example, his nanocars pushed far beyond expectations. They are literally molecules that look and move like cars, and he created for them a motor that makes 3 million revolutions per second.

This is a lot faster than could

be expected in building even a macroscopic car. The first version of his nanocars had a motor that made only 1.8 revolutions per minute.

“He is just incredibly creative as a chemist,” Wade Adams, director of Rice’s Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, told the Chronicle.

“He makes molecules dance.”

But Tour has felt the scorn in academia for his open declarations about evolution. “When appointments are not made, when fellowships are not granted on this basis, that hurts. …

I’m willing to stand up and say I don’t see any clothes on that emperor. I’m being very open.

That bothers a lot of people. I don’t know why,” he told the Chronicle. The Rice administration has continued to support Tour, however.

In his talk at Georgia Tech, Tour recalled a conversation he

Behind closed doors, Tour says, the leading chemists in the world will admit they have no idea how evolution works. once had with a bio-engineer in Israel: “[The bio-engineer was] describing to me the ear, and he was studying the different changes in the modulus of the ear, and I said, ‘How does this come about?’ And he says, ‘Oh, Jim, you know, we all believe in evolution, but we have no idea how it happened.’”

Epoch Times

TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCE

November 7 – 20, 2014

19

Will 2014 be the Warmest Year On Record?

Shahee Ilyas/Creative Commons 3.0

By Jeremy Hance Mongabay.com With the news that September was the warmest on record globally, 2014 takes one step closer to being the warmest year since record-keeping began in the late 19th century. Last week, NOAA announced that September was 0.72 degrees Celsius above the 20th century average, not only making it the hottest yet, but further pushing 2014 past the current ceiling.

“If 2014 maintains this temperature departure from average for the remainder of the year, it will be the warmest calendar year on record,” said NOAA in a statement.

According to NOAA, 2010 was the warmest year on record, 2005 comes in second, and 1998 third. But this year could top all of them. In fact, September was not the only-record breaking month this year. According to

Male, the capital of the Maldives. One of the world’s lowest-lying island nations, the Maldives is on the front line of rising seas caused by global warming.

NOAA, May, June, and August were also top record months.

Current warming is driven by continually-rising greenhouse gas emissions, the bulk of them coming from burning fossil fu-

els, such as coal, oil, and gas.

Deforestation and industrialised agriculture are also playing a smaller but still important role in driving global temperature upwards.

The fact that 2014 may be the warmest year on record is especially surprising given that it is—not yet at least—an El Nino year. El Nino conditions, driven by warm sea surface temperatures in the Pacific, are important because they push global temperatures up. In fact, most of the warmest years on record are El Nino years.

But to date, 2014 has not seen its long-anticipated El Nino. Sea surface temperatures have been high in the region for months, but just always below required conditions.

“Although El Niño conditions were not officially present across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean during September, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Centre favours El Niño to begin in the next one to two months and last into the Northern Hemisphere spring 2015,” reads the NOAA statement.

This means that 2015 would also likely be among the warm-

est years on record.

NOAA has found that if the next three months (OctoberDecember) are equal to the averages of the warmest ten years on record, then 2014 will be a record-breaker. If, however, the next three months is equal to the average of the 21st century to date, then 2014 will tie with 2010 as the warmest.

Still, NOAA climate scientist Jessica Blunden told the Associated Press that “it’s pretty likely” 2014 will be the hottest year yet.

However this year turns out, the world continues to heat up.

Blunden said that NOAA’s data shows clear global warming, and to those that erroneously claim the planet’s temperature has not risen since 1996, she says, “No one’s told the globe that.”

This article was originally was written and published by Jeremy Hance, a contributing writer for news.mongabay.com.

20 NOVEMBER 7 – 20, 2014

TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCE

Epoch Times

Bryan Thomas/Getty Images

Apple Pay Vs Google Wallet: Which Is a More Secure Payment Service?

A worker demonstrates Apple Pay on Oct 20 in New York, NY. Bryan Thomas/Getty Images

By Umar Rao Nullmag.com Apple Pay or Google Wallet?

Apple Pay is not the first payment service offered by any company.

Google Wallet has been in the game for a much longer time. People say that checkout with Apple Pay is a breeze, but where it really wins is security.

Unlike Google Wallet, Apple Pay uses tokenisation that prevents merchants from seeing your credit card number.

In an iPhone, these credit card tokens are hidden in a chip called the Secure Element (as stated

by Apple) – and this chip can only be accessed by your fingerprint, through the Touch ID. Now that’s what I like about Apple Pay over Google Wallet, as it is the only service that uses biometric security as a

Both services are great, albeit Apple Pay is slightly more secure than Google Wallet. On the other hand, Google Wallet is more user-friendly, providing more functionality with its app.

standard.

Right now, there are approximately 200 retailers that use Apple Pay as a checkout option. In late October, Apple Pay had its initial release on the iPhone.

On the other hand, Google Wallet is equally easy to use, but it quickly surpasses Apple Pay’s functionality with the Google Wallet app, where one can store loyalty cards and gift cards. In addition, you can use the app to send money to friends. Google Wallet is also accepted by many online retailers – so it seems better than Apple Pay, right?

A drawback called Host Card Emulation plagues Google Wallet. Instead of storing your credit card information as encrypted tokens inside a chip in the phone, Google stores that data in the cloud. This enables it to work with more devices, but it also opens doors to more security issues and hacking opportunities.

Google Wallet also gives you the option to use a physical debit card.

Verdict Both services are great, albeit Apple Pay is slightly more secure than Google Wallet. On the other hand, Google Wallet is more user-friendly, providing more functionality with its app.

If you have a Google Android

Apple Pay is promoted on signs placed at the cash register of Whole Foods in Columbus Circle on Oct 20, 2014 in New York, NY.

device, you would more likely use Google Wallet. For an iPhone user, Apple Pay is the best and only choice to go with.

But no matter which service you

choose, don’t throw your traditional wallets yet!

Republished with permission from NullMag

Epoch Times

TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCE

NOVEMBER 7 – 20, 2014 21

‘Ice Man’ on a Mission to Scientifically Prove Power of Mind Enahm Hof/IcemanWimHof.com

By Tara MacIsaac Epoch Times Staff

His message of inspiration is that anyone can do what he does, and thus achieve significantly better health.

Wim Hof was born into a frigid world.

His was a traumatic birth, struggling out of the womb he shared with his twin into the cold hallway of a Dutch hospital. He almost suffocated. His simple, faithful mother made a vow to God that if He’d let her baby live, she would raise that baby to become a missionary.

As a teenager, Hof revisited that trauma. Turning the cold and the shortness of breath that almost took his life into a power for good, he started on a path that led him to fulfill his mother’s vow in a way she could never have imagined.

In Hof’s search for something more, he read Buddhist texts, did yoga, and tried numerous martial arts or meditation techniques. He spent much time in nature, finding great inspiration there. One day, when he was 17, he slipped into a basin covered by a thin layer of ice.

The Vow Fulfilled It was a phone call with Dr Ken Kamler in New York that spurred Hof to pursue scientific proof of what he already knew to be true.

Dr Kamler was interested in Hof’s ability to exert control over his own autoimmune system. If Hof could teach others to do the same, inflammatory diseases such as multiple-sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and Crohn’s disease could be healed— sans medication or surgery (the pharmaceutical companies aren’t Hof’s biggest supporters, Hof noted).

Other serious diseases may be cured with further study of Hof’s method. Dr Kalmer told Hof that if the experiments testing his method could be replicated, it could mean a leap forward for mankind.

“That moment made me a missionary consciously,” Hof said. The promise his mother had made over her fragile newborn was fulfilled in this strong-willed man. He did not become a Christian missionary, but he did become a missionary in his work to bring strength of spirit to many. He would teach others, and he would verify with science the power of the mind to heal the body.

Half-an-hour after this revelation, he received a phone call saying his mother had died.

“She was a farmer’s daughter, she was naïve, but she was a good woman,” he said. “She is hearing this now, I thank her,” he said during a telephone interview with Epoch Times. He was speaking from Poland, where he is currently training a group of 20 people to bathe in ice water, to bring up emotions through breathing exercises, and to control parts of their bodies long thought to be beyond the power of the human will.

The cold makes you go within.

Wim Hof “Boom, it felt so good!” Hof said, with characteristic gusto. “The cold makes you go within.” The cold connected him with the trauma of his birth, he said, and resolved it. He felt his blood rushing in an unusual way, and his breathing changed.

He realised that breathing a certain way allowed him to feel at ease in the icy water.

The changes he experienced while in the water allowed him to take control of automatic processes in his body.

“That’s a physical revelation; that’s a mystical revelation,” he said, communicating the dual nature of his realisation— one both spiritual and scientifically verifiable.

He regularly submerged himself in the revitalising aqua pura for 15 years before anyone knew about it. In seclusion, “no one knew me as the Ice Man,” he said. “I didn’t want to be nicknamed, to be called crazy,” he said.

A local newspaper eventually discovered Hof’s unusual practice, however, and he became the Ice Man. “They made me Super Man, sort of—the Ice Man,” he said. Humble in his strength and prone to a quiet, peaceful life even as he performs highly publicised stunts – some of which have earned him Guinness World Records – Hof seeks fame primarily to help others.

It’s Science Hof has successfully trained students to achieve the same control over their bodies he achieved for himself, and his accomplishment has been documented in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

A study published by the US National Academy of Sciences in May reads: “Hitherto, both the autonomic nervous system and innate immune system were regarded as systems that cannot be voluntarily influenced. The present study demonstrates that, through practising techniques learned in a short-term training programme, the sympathetic nervous system and immune system can indeed be voluntarily influenced.”

The study’s lead author, Matthijs Kox at Radboud University Medical Centre

Wim Hof, also known as the ‘Ice Man’

in the Netherlands, told Nature that the results are preliminary, but hopeful. For the study, Hof taught 12 students his technique. These 12 students and 12 control subjects were all injected with a bacterial toxin to induce fever, headache, and other symptoms of illness. Hof and his students showed an increased ability to suppress the symptoms.

Hof’s students were able to produce adrenaline at will. Controlling hormones with the mind can help treat depression, Hof said, and it simply makes a person feel great. As terrible as it sounds, people even learn to enjoy ice baths.

‘Pure Joy’ A reviewer for Physique Hacks tried Hof’s online course and said in a YouTube video: “During the first week of cold showers, the common theme behind my experiences and what I was writing down [in my course workbook] was one of pain—’absolute pain; pure hell; cold shower = oh the horror’. But [funnily] enough, by the end of week two, those

words of pain transformed into words of pleasure—’felt amazing; pure joy; one word: wow’.”

Hof’s enthusiasm and vigour are contagious. His method is rooted in a sense of wonder, in a return to nature, he said.

During his interview with Epoch Times, he often expressed that wonder in statements such as, “Wow, I’m so grateful I’m here on the planet!”

He has earned fame for feats such as climbing Mount Everest in shorts and making it to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in record time with a group of his students, among whom were the sick and elderly. He is aiming to set a new record with a group of students in January 2015 – but this is not his main focus.

“The next challenge to me is science, research,” he said. “That’s my Mount Everest.”

He continues to teach and have his method subjected to scientific research, bringing the power of meditation and self-healing to the mainstream. He said, “This method is no longer alternative.”